Death toll of paramilitary drone strike in Sudan rises to 114
The World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed on December 8th that the death toll from drone strikes launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that hit a kindergarten and other sites in Sudan’s South Kordofan state has risen to 114 people, according to AP news.
Among the dead are 63 children. WHO has stated that there were three separate drone attacks on Kalogi on December 4. Follow-up strikes targeted a hospital and paramedics who were transporting survivors of the initial attack to a medical facility.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the organisation “deplores these senseless attacks on civilians and health facilities, and calls again for an end to the violence and increased access to humanitarian aid, including health.”
Sudan has seen many such strikes across several cities, which have permanently affected civilians’ everyday lives. Just in May, a major drone strike targeted Port Sudan’s critical infrastructure. The strikes intensified power outages and left residents with water shortages.
The strikes on Kalogi and the Sudanese government’s then-wartime capital and key humanitarian centre highlight the RSF’s capability to wage war and also reflects the rising use of sophisticated drone technology in African conflicts.
The RSF’s bombing campaigns come as part of its brutal civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) which started in April 2023 and continues to rage on. It frequently targets civilians through raids, bombardments, and mass executions.
Now that the North Darfur capital city of El-Fasher has been captured by the RSF after 18 months of siege, granting it total control of the Darfur region, the frontline of the fighting has shifted eastwards into the Kordofan region, where the drone strikes on the kindergarten took place.
The entire Kordofan region has become highly contested, with advances being made and lost on a regular basis by both warring factions. An RSF ally, the SPLM-N, claimed on December 4th that its fighters recaptured a garrison in South Kordofan, reversing a territorial gain previously made by the SAF.
AP News, Maghrebi.org
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